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Tuesday, June 29, 2010

Fabric Flower tutorial

These fabric flowers are a great addition to your Twirly Girl skirt, a handbag, or place some felt and a pin on the back to add a little something-something to a shirt or coat!

To make a fabric flower:

Cut a long strip of fabric that is 2 inches wide. The length can vary depending on how big of a flower you want; the one shown in the photo measured about 2 feet long. I joined 2 shorter pieces together to get this length, so feel free to use scraps or even a bunch of different fabrics. This part is more art than science, so be creative and have fun!

Take your piece of flower fabric and fold length wise. Press.

Sew a straight stitch starting at the edge on one side; slowly start wandering towards the middle (as shown below) so that one end becomes narrower than the other. Leave both ends open. Trim excess.Using a safety pin, pin one edge of the narrow end, then insert the pin into the hole and use your fingers to work it down the length of this “tube” you have created until it emerges on the other side. Pull to make fabric right side out again. You will have a long tube with one end narrower than the other. Press. Invert raw end pieces ¼ inch inside, then sew ends closed.Start with narrow end of strip to form centre of flower. Wrap fabric around itself, gathering at bottom (seam side) with your fingers to form a flower. Use a needle and thread to secure together by sewing in base of flower. If desired, insert button at centre. Again, this is the creative part- there is no right or wrong, so play with it and have fun to make your own one-of-a-kind flower! When you are happy, hand sew onto skirt or other item.Congratulations! You did it! If you missed my Twirly Girl ruffle skirt tutorial, you can find it here. I hope you enjoy your Fabric Flower, but please remember that this tutorial is intended for home enjoyment only and not for commercial use. Feel free to blog about your creations; a link back to this page would be appreciated. I would love to see your finished skirts, so please shoot me an e-mail with your pictures or blog links to me so I can admire them! I also have a Flickr group and would love to see your photos there. Have fun!

TERMS OF USE - You may use all of my free tutorials for personal or charitable/fundraising purposes. I do not allow items made using my tutorials to be sold for profit. Please feel free to link to any of my projects but DO NOT use pictures of my children. Thank you!